Trisha Shetty (Editor)

OC Weekly

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Type
  
Alternative weekly

Publisher
  
Duncan McIntosh

Circulation
  
45,000 (2016)

Owner(s)
  
Duncan McIntosh Co

Editor
  
Gustavo Arellano

Headquarters
  
2975 Red Hill Ave. Suite 150 Costa Mesa, California 92626 USA

OC Weekly is a free weekly paper (an alternative weekly) distributed in Orange County and Long Beach, California. OC Weekly was founded in September 1995 by Will Swaim, who acted as editor and publisher until 2007.

Contents

The paper is distributed at coffee shops, bookstores, clothing stores, convenience stores,and street boxes. OC Weekly prints art and entertainment listings for both Orange and Los Angeles counties. As of 2016, it had a total circulation of 45,000 papers with an estimated readership of 225,000.

Content

The weekly highlights content that critiques local politics, personalities and culture and has been described as "what some people might politely call an edgy brand of journalism." Popular features include: the syndicated column "¡Ask a Mexican!", in which Arellano responds to reader questions about Latino stereotypes in an amusing politically incorrect manner; an award-winning news blog called Navel Gazing; a food blog called "Stick a Fork in It"; and the award-winning investigative work of R. Scott Moxley, Nick Schou and Matt Coker.

Ownership

Duncan McIntosh Co., Irvine, California, owns the publication along with Sea Magazine, BoatingWorld, The Log, and Editor & Publisher. The previous owner was Voice Media Group and was a sister publication of the LA Weekly and The Village Voice. In January 2015, Voice Media Group offered the OC Weekly for sale. Duncan McIntosh purchased the paper in 2016.

Awards and Reputation

For his newspaper work, the publisher Gustavo Arellano received a 2014 Distinguished Journalist Award from the Greater Los Angeles chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists and the 2008 Spirit Award from the California Latino Legislative Caucus as well as awards from the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies, the Los Angeles Press Club and the National Hispanic Media Coalition.

The OC Weekly's articles frequently target conservative politicians and hypocrisies within the local establishment. Exposes have led to felony indictments against two consecutive Huntington Beach mayors, helped free innocent men and a woman from prison. and exposed the relationship between the local sheriff and an organized crime associate. In early 2009, that sheriff was sentenced to 66 months in federal prison. Other noteworthy coverage has included the Catholic Church sex-abuse scandal, and Orange County's controversial toll road, a multibillion-dollar subsidy to the richest man in OC. Its articles get cited frequently by the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Report. In 2009, a ranking California Republican state assemblyman and vice chairman of a powerful utilities committee resigned within hours of the Weekly disclosing his sexual relationship with a lobbyist for Sempra Energy, a giant California utility.

References

OC Weekly Wikipedia